In space, fast is good. It allows you to outrun enemies, finish the mission faster, shuttle the high-maintenance ambassadors to their destinations quicker, and it's a good way to show off to ship guests what a starship can do.

Here is gold-plated space bling at its finest:

This is nothing more than the, "Let's do some fancy special effects to woo the audience because Trek viewers want colorful lights" syndrome. Perhaps if you were high on drugs, this is what you'd see in space. Otherwise, it's just artificial eye candy. Seriously, this does not look like the natural state of a warp bubble being formed or what a ship in warp would look like.

This does:

This is kinda does:

And here is the original "Enterprise swish" fly-by in the opening credits, complete with grainy photographic artifacts:

It's not totally convincing, but I'll deal with the swish. I like it better than the, "Let's stretch the ship like a rubber band before it hits warp" effect in TNG. I always thought that was pretty lame.